ISLAM
Judaism
| Christianity
How is the relationship between God and humanity understood
in the religion?
by John Kaltner
The
name of the religion and the term used to designate someone who
adheres to it capture very well the essence of Islam’s understanding
of the relationship between God and humanity. The
word islam means “submission,” and the muslim
is a submitter, or one who engages in islam. The
thing to which a Muslim submits is the will of God as it is revealed
in the text of the Qur’an and the teachings of the faith.
The individual believer must therefore always adopt an attitude
of obedience and surrender before the power and majesty of God.
At the same time, despite this position of inferiority, humanity
also has a special role to play by virtue of the fact that God has
placed it in a position of authority over the rest of creation.
These
two aspects of the divine/human relationship can be neatly summed
up in two images: human beings are simultaneously God’s servants
and God’s representatives. On the one hand, because we are
called to submit ourselves fully to the divine will our relationship
with God most closely resembles that between a master and a servant.
Just as the servant does the bidding of his or her master with no
questions asked, so, too, should the Muslim respond to the will
and desire of the deity. The relationship is not one of negotiation
or compromise, but one of complete compliance.
This
notion is conveyed quite well in the Arabic term most commonly used
for worship, ‘ibada, which comes from a root that
carries with it a sense of servitude or enslavement. An
act of worship in Islam—be it prayer, fasting, making the
pilgrimage, or anything else—is best understood as an expression
of one’s status as a servant to God’s will.
This same idea is reflected in one of the most common elements found
in personal names in the Arabic-speaking Muslim world.
The
word `abd, which is etymologically related to `ibada,
means “servant, slave.” This word is often found in
combination with terms and titles that refer to God, thereby identifying
the bearer of the name as a servant of the deity. For example, the
name Abdullah, literally “servant of Allah,” is a very
frequent personal name. Similarly, a name like Abd al-Rahman, meaning
“servant of the Merciful One,” draws on one of the ninety-nine
names of God mentioned above. Such terminology gets at the core
of the way Muslims see themselves before God.
At
the same time, human beings are also God’s representatives
on earth. This can be seen in the account of the
creation of humanity found in Qur’an 2:28-39, where God speaks
to the angels and refers to Adam as a deputy or successor. The word
found here is khalifa, which is the same term that is translated
as “caliph” to describe those who rule the Muslim community
in the place of the Prophet Muhammad after his death. The passage
seems to be saying that humanity somehow acts as God’s envoy
in creation, and that the deity has endowed us with a certain duty
that we are to exercise responsibly.
This
text is often cited to explain how humanity has a special status
vis-à-vis the rest of the created order. According to this
reading, we are meant to be God’s agents in creation, and
we should therefore be responsible stewards of what has been entrusted
to us. But we must never make the mistake of assuming that our unique
place in the world makes us closer to God or God’s equals.
Orthodox Islam is quite clear in its belief that a wide gulf separates
humanity from the deity.
But
some Muslims have maintained that the gulf can be crossed. Sufis,
like the mystics in other religions, believe it is possible to have
a profound personal experience of God. They base
this view on certain traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, whose strict
ascetic lifestyle allowed him to know God intimately, and texts
of the Qur’an that appear to challenge the idea that humans
can never truly know God. One of the most famous passages is found
in 50:16, which states that God is closer to a person than his or
her jugular vein. Sufis cite such texts as evidence that it is possible
to grow closer to God, some even arguing that the believer and the
deity can eventually become one.
The
Sufi masters and schools have devised various means, such as chanting
and dancing, that allow the individual to come to experience the
unity of all creation in God despite the apparent multiplicity that
we perceive. The whirling dervishes who follow the disciplines established
by the famous poet and mystic Jalaludin
Rumi (1207-73) are one such group. Many of the ideas espoused
by Sufism run counter to more traditional Muslim views regarding
the relationship between God and humanity. Nonetheless, it has always
been recognized as a valid and legitimate expression of Islamic
faith.
Copyright
©2006 John Kaltner
John
Kaltner is a member of the Department of Religious Studies
at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee where he teaches courses
in Bible, Islam, and Arabic. Among his books are Islam:
What Non-Muslims Should Know (2003); Inquiring
of Joseph: Getting to Know a Biblical Character through the Qu’ran
(2003); Ishmael
Instructs Isaac: An Introduction to the Qur’an for Bible Readers
(Collegeville: Liturgical Press/Michael Glazier, 1999).
Excerpts
from What Do Our Neighbors Believe?: Questions and Answers on
Judaism, Christianity and Islam by Howard Greenstein, Kendra
Hotz, and John Kaltner are used by permission from Westminster John
Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky. The book will be available for
purchase in December 2006.
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